Moral Tension among Nurses
Author(s): Khalili Arash, Karami Fatemeh, Sharifian Pegah
Abstract
When nurses and nursing students are dealing with the moral constraint or making decision in the clinical procedures, they face with moral tension. The purpose of this article is to elaborate this matter that how the constraint and environmental, communication and organizational factors lead to moral tension among undergraduate nursing students during clinical experience and professional training. The research design was a systematic review on the literature of conducted studies in this field. 83 published articles were reviewed during the years since 2006 to 2016. These articles were screened through an assessment sheet designed by Hawker et al. Four articles were in accordance with search criteria (a quantitative study and three qualitative studies) and the researchers studied and analyzed these articles separately. Data analysis showed that the inequalities and inconsistencies affecting health care, having relationship with the counselor, the individual characteristics of nurses might have negative effects on decision making and nursing care; and as a result lead to moral tension. All of these factors affect the clinical experience and the learning process as well as the professional development and possible care options for future nurses. There is a marked lack of information regarding the study on moral tension in the nursing education environment; and only a few limited studies on this important issue have been conducted. There is a need for conducting further research on interventions minimizing moral tension among nurses.
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